<
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/21/female-representation-film-usc-annenberg-study>
"A new study has shown that the number of female leads in Hollywood movies is
at a 10-year low.
Despite the $1.4bn success of
Barbie, last year’s top 100 films saw just 30
feature a female lead or co-lead, the worst result since 2014 according to a
new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
“This is a catastrophic step back for girls and women in film,” Dr Stacy L
Smith, research head, said in a statement. “In the last 14 years, we have
charted progress in the industry, so to see this reversal is both startling and
in direct contrast to all of the talk of 2023 as the ‘year of the woman’.”
The results follow a record high in 2022 with a 44% result. Despite a number of
major female-lead films moving to 2024, such as Luca Guadagnino’s romantic
drama
Challengers starring Zendaya, the study’s authors do not believe this
to be the reason, writing that “we cannot explain the collapse” and calling it
“an industry failure”.
The number of films led by women of colour also fell from 18 to 14 which still
marks a major leap from 2007, when the study originated, with just one. Only
three films in 2023 featured a woman over the age of 45 as a lead or co-lead
compared with 32 for men in the same age category."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
